Mohamed Ousman
April 28 was Freedom Day in South Africa.
It was an official holiday so that people could appreciate the so-called freedom in South Africa.
Being that it was a day-off from work, a protest was organized and held outside the Egyptian embassy.
Despite being scheduled on a public holiday in order to attract a large crowd, only a small number pitched up.
Their demand was the opening of the Rafah Crossing in order for life saving humanitarian aid to be allowed through the crossing into Gaza.
Those obsessed by numbers were noticeably disappointed.
Only a handful of Muslims showed up while participation from the broader cross-section of society was even lower.
At the same time, tens of thousands of Muslims travelled from all across Southern Africa to attend the annual ijtima’.
A week earlier, thousands of Christians had traveled from across southern Africa to attend the Easter commemorations of the resurrection of Christ.
According to Christian scripture, he was nailed to the cross and killed by the zionists of his time.
Muslims do not subscribe to this view because the Qur'an rejects this interpretation.
At the same time as these commemorations were being held, Muslims packed the Convention Centre to listen to the US-based celebrity, Omar Sulayman.
For the record, he is of Palestinian origin.
People paid hundreds of rands to be “inspired” by Sulayman yet when the test came, and Gaza screamed for action, they turned a deaf ear!
Have we, Muslims and Christians, relegated our relationship of conformance to the Almighty to mere rituals devoid of justice?
Being that Christians have a distorted relationship with Prophet Jesus, resulting in their salvation not being dependent on social and institutional justice, one can understand their absence.
But how does one explain the absence of Muslims from these events?
At another level, a disturbing trend seems to be emerging where the zionist Israeli flag is being shielded by supposedly pro-Palestinian activists.
In October 2023, at a rally outside the zionist Embassy in Pretoria, the Treasurer General of the African National Congress rebuked protestors for “being disrespectful and burning the zionist Israeli flag.”
She audaciously went on to demand that “those responsible should come on stage and apologize for burning the flag.”
Fortunately no one paid attention to her remarks.
In March 2025, at a Quds Day rally outside the American Consulate in Sandton, the leader of Al-Jama‘ah Party expressed his “disappointment at the burning of the zionist Israeli flag.”
At the protest outside the Egyptian Embassy in Pretoria on April 28, the organisers of the protest engaged in heated altercation with protestors who wanted to burn the zionist Israeli flag.
The organisers once again shielded the zionist Israeli flag… successfully.
It turns out that the organisers had pre-determined that there would be no burning of the Israeli flag.
The irony of commemorating ‘Freedom Day’ was not lost, at least on some!
In March 2024, the former minister of International Relations and Cooperation shifted the responsibility to engage in economic warfare against the zionist Israelis away from government and placed it on the shoulders of ordinary people.
Similarly, at an iftar organized by the Islamic Republic of Iran in Johannesburg during March 2025, a former Ambassador of South Africa re-iterated the sentiments that the South African government should not be expected to get involved in the anti-Israeli effort but that the baton must be picked up by ordinary people.
Reviewing these developments, it is clear that the struggle against zionism needs to be taken by authentic leaders who will be able to motivate people beyond mere sloganeering.
A week is scarcely sufficient to turn one into an expert on the affairs of another country, especially one as complex as the State of Israel...
